The BBC’s Nick Robinson has it almost right when he says there are two ways of judging these elections – through the prism of the last three decades of British politics with its long-lived single party governments (Tories 1979-97; Labour 97-2010) or through the prism of 1970s one-term Governments. In the 1979-2010 period incumbent governments […]
Can Mervyn King do the math? Apparently not……might explain a lot?
I heard yet again today someone using the Queen’s Jubilee Gambit to explain that next quarter (Q2 2012) may see even more sluggish growth in the economy or even that wonder “negative growth”. This is based on comments made by the Governor of the Bank of England a few weeks ago:
Have Social Sciences “Wasted a Good Crisis”?
Aditya Chakrabortty has suggested (in a Guardian column) that British “publicly funded” social scientists have failed to step into the breach as neo-classical economic orthodoxy so spectacularly failed over the 2007-2009 financial crisis and it’s on-going consequences. Read my analysis over on my new ‘Homo Janus’ blog here.
Doubling Dip: is it the government’s fault?
So, Britain is officially in a ”double-dip” recession, just. In reality this is both more and less serious than it sounds. It is more serious because we are still a good 4% of GDP lower than we were at the start of the financial crisis in 2007. And that is probably between 10% or more […]
The Class Ceiling – Posh Boys (and Girls) Still Rule OK
When Tory MP Nadine Dorries described her Prime Minister and Chancellor as ”two arrogant posh boys” it prompted me to start thinking about my own experiences of class in British society over the past half century. My conclusion – there is, still, a ”class ceiling” in British society. True, it is weaker than it once […]
There is no such thing as a free lunch, unless you’re running a state funded academies trust that is. In which case you can free everything.
I have been predicting for ages that some of the current (and previous) Government’s reforms like NHS Foundation Trusts, Academies and ‘Free Schools’, and the soon to be Community Commissioning Groups, will undermine financial control and audit in these publicly funded agencies. In June 2010, for example, I wrote that “Many of the much derided […]
Jeremy Hunt (DCMS) debacle raises again the issue of Civil Service Reform
This week saw an extraordinary outburst from the most recently retired Head of the Civil Service, Lord Gus O’Donnell. He said, on the BBC, “”When governments go through difficult patches you are looking for who you can blame. The issue comes up of ‘well, let’s try and blame the Civil Service’. It does not usually […]
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Policy@Manchester
One of the things that distinguishes top Universities around the world is that, certainly in democracies, they are usually power-houses of public policy ideas. True, in recent years in some countries Universities have been squeezed out by (sometimes very well funded) Think Tanks and governments that regarded ‘liberal’ or ‘leftie’ academics as more of a […]
‘Made to Stick’ – how to make your key messages memorable
This book looks at what makes ideas “stick” – why some ideas spread easily whilst others don’t. Being able to communicate effectively has become increasingly important for public managers in democratic states. “A medium-sized ‘butter’ popcorn at a typical neighborhood movie theatre contains more artery-clogging fat than a bacon-and-eggs breakfast, a Big Mac and fries lunch, and […]
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